Linux love for Students & Teachers, what about the Principal?

I am really liking what I see in the "Linux for schools" category.

There are several school oriented desktops and LTSP type servers to allow schools to take full advantage of existing hardware. OpenSuse Education and Edubuntu being a couple of the stand out products available as well as K-12LTSP, based on fedora.

I can't argue against the usefulness of LTSP and distributed desktop capabilities in a school. Not much can maximize TCO and is handled on a school budget better,

The interfaces, like Sugar and some of the compelling homegrown themes and designs of these are top notch, with many of the designers working with school professionals to make something that really works for students.





And this is Sugar...


I am curious though, what about the other people in the school that may not be teachers or students?

There are office personnel who handle student records and data entry. Visiting teachers who come infrequently who just need access to online resources. Maintenance staff who might need to access work logs and task scheduling. What of these users in a school?

They surely don't need the student oriented desktops and themes, nor the programs for teaching math and science. At the same time, they need access to school oriented software, Like library management software (Think Evergreen or OpenBiblio) and Student/school management software (OpenSis for example) and of course the more common desktop tools like Wikis and blog sites , email, shared calendaring, groupware, etc...

Are we telling schools when it comes to staff needs, they are on their own when it comes to Linux? "Build a regular server like everyone else."

I agree, when it comes to LAN servers, like routers and DNS/DHCP. etc... there are already some fine projects that meet those needs succinctly. Ubuntu server, ClarkConnect and so many others can be fashioned into LAN servers with little to no trouble.

There are so many school specific and useful for school web apps that I have no doubt any school would love to consider a non-teaching oriented web server built just for schools.

Having a pre-built server system like this would be another great way for schools to save time and money in providing resources for support staff.

We will do some more research on this end to point out any more of these support oriented ISO's that can be found. I am sure some do exist, but they aren't obviously placed on the web as of now.

It's not just the teachers and students who need a little Linux love in the schools, and there is no doubt that Linux has plenty love to go round, if we point it in the right direction.